On being the ‘gender person’ in an academic department: constructions,configurations and implications

The term ‘gender person’ in an academic department is a colloquial expression which refers to someone who researches and/or teaches about gender, but whose primary affiliation is not to a gender studies department or centre. This role has particularly been discussed in relation to international development organisations, but has been neglected in relation to higher education institutions. The article reapplies Lucy Ferguson’s ‘gender person’ framework to academics working as ‘gender people’ in the conditions of contemporary academia. Three cases of different manifestations of the ‘gender person’ role are explored in detail and analysed for the ways in which occupying the ‘gender person’ role impacts upon academic careers and gender knowledge. The article contributes an elaborated concept of the ‘gender person’ in academia and provides empirical evidence of being the ‘gender person’. The article particularly shows that relying on a ‘gender person’ as a form of gender mainstreaming renders both gender academics and academic departments vulnerable in different ways.     

Parental Differential Treatment of Siblings and Adolescents’ Health-Related Behaviors: The Moderating Role of Personality

Youth who receive comparatively poorer parental treatment than a sibling are at risk for maladaptive behaviors in a variety of domains, but research has yet to examine links with adolescents’ health-related behaviors nor consider how those links may vary based on adolescents’ personality traits, namely conscientiousness and agreeableness. Two siblings (n?=?590 adolescents; 53% female; M_age?=?15.86, SD?=?1.73) from 295 families reported on their differential conflict and closeness with their fathers and mothers as well as on their personality, sleep habits, exercise habits, and general health habits. Multilevel modeling revealed that, generally, the less conscientious adolescents had better health habits when they had comparatively warmer relationships with their mothers. Less conscientiousness adolescents may be less distressed by inequality in the family, and thus may experience positive effects of relatively better treatment.

     

Who,What, Where,When, and Why: Demographic and Ecological Factors Contributing to Hostile School Climate for Lesbian,Gay, Bisexual,and Transgender Youth

This study examines how locational (region and locale), community-level (school district poverty and adult educational attainment), and school district-level (district size and ratios of students to key school personnel) variables are related to indicators of hostile school climate for lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender (LGBT) youth. Indicators of hostile climate included frequency of homophobic remarks and victimization regarding sexual orientation and gender expression. We used data from a national survey of LGBT secondary school students (N = 5,420; 57.6% female; 65.5% White; mean age = 15.9). Results from regression analyses demonstrated that LGBT youth in rural communities and communities with lower adult educational attainment may face particularly hostile school climates. School district characteristics contributed little to the variation in LGBT youth’s experiences. Findings highlight the importance of considering the multiple contexts that LGBT youth inhabit, particularly as they pertain to educational experiences.     

Cultural Orientations, Daily Activities, and Adjustment in Mexican American Youth

The links between youth’s daily activities and adjustment and the role of cultural practices and values in these links were studied in 469 youth from 237 Mexican American families. In home interviews, data on mothers’, fathers’, and two adolescent-age siblings’ cultural practices (language use, social contacts) and values (for familism, for education achievement) were collected, along with data on youth risky behavior and depressive symptoms. In 7 nightly phone calls, youth reported on their day’s free time activities (i.e., sports, academics, religious activities, television viewing, and hanging out). Analyses revealed that youth who spent more time in unsupervised hanging out reported more depressive symptoms and risky behavior, and those who spent more time in academic activities reported less risky behavior. Results also indicated that more Anglo-oriented youth spent more time in sports, that more Mexican-oriented youth spent more time watching television, that fathers’ familism values were related to youth’s time in religious activities, and that parents’ educational values were linked to youth’s time in academic activities. Some evidence indicated that parents’ cultural practices and values, particularly fathers’, moderated the links between daily activities and youth adjustment.

Prosocial Behavior as a Protective Factor for Children’s Peer Victimization

A majority of peer victimization research focuses on its associations with negative outcomes, yet efforts to understand possible protective factors that may mitigate these negative outcomes also require attention. The present study was an investigation of the potential moderating effect of prosocial behaviors on loneliness for youth who are peer victimized. Participants were fourth and fifth grade students (511 total; 49 % boys) who were primarily European American (43.4 %) and Hispanic (48.2 %). Structural Equation Modeling was used to test the interaction of prosocial behavior and peer victimization (relational and overt forms) on loneliness 1 year later. The results indicated that prosocial behavior significantly moderated the relationship between peer victimization (for the relational form only) and loneliness while controlling for levels of perceived peer support. A multi-group comparison by gender further indicated the moderation was significant for boys only. Potential implications for intervention/prevention efforts focused on developing children’s prosocial skills as a possible protective factor for relationally victimized youth are discussed.     

Compliance with Parents’ Rules: Between-Person and Within-Person Predictions

The current study focused on the childhood to adolescence transition and sought to determine why some children are more compliant than others as well as why children comply more often with some of their parents’ rules than with others. Indices of parents’ agency and children’s agency were tested as predictors of compliance. Parent-based decision-making and parents’ responses to expressed disagreement served as indices of parents’ agency while children’s beliefs regarding the legitimacy of parents’ rules and felt obligation to obey rules served as indices of children’s agency. Parent–child dyads (n = 218; 51 % female, 49 % European American, 47 % African American) were interviewed during the summers following the children’s 5th (M adolescent age = 11.9 years) and 6th grade school years. Children who felt that their parents’ rules were more legitimate were more compliant overall than were children who felt that the rules were less legitimate. Children compiled more with rules governing topics perceived to be legitimately regulated by parents, when parents made more decisions regarding the topic and when parents responded to disagreement by standing strong. Results were generally consistent across parents’ and children’s reports of compliance and across cross-sectional and longitudinal analyses. At the transition from childhood to adolescence, only children’s agency explained why some children are more compliant than others, but parents’ and children’s agency helped to explain why children complied with some rules more than others.     

Beyond Correlates: A Review of Risk and Protective Factors for Adolescent Dating Violence Perpetration

Dating violence is a serious public health problem. In recent years, the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and other entities have made funding available to community based agencies for dating violence prevention. Practitioners who are tasked with developing dating violence prevention strategies should pay particular attention to risk and protective factors for dating violence perpetration that have been established in longitudinal studies. This has been challenging to date because the scientific literature on the etiology of dating violence is somewhat limited, and because there have been no comprehensive reviews of the literature that clearly distinguish correlates of dating violence perpetration from risk or protective factors that have been established through longitudinal research. This is problematic because prevention programs may then target factors that are merely correlated with dating violence perpetration, and have no causal influence, which could potentially limit the effectiveness of the programs. In this article, we review the literature on risk and protective factors for adolescent dating violence perpetration and highlight those factors for which temporal precedence has been established by one or more studies. This review is intended as a guide for researchers and practitioners as they formulate prevention programs. We reviewed articles published between 2000 and 2010 that reported on adolescent dating violence perpetration using samples from the United States or Canada. In total, 53 risk factors and six protective factors were identified from 20 studies. Next steps for etiological research in adolescent dating violence are discussed, as well as future directions for prevention program developers.     

Interdisciplinary problem solving workshops for grizzly bear conservation in Banff National Park,Canada

We used the policy sciences as an organizing framework for a series of workshops with stakeholders in Banff National Park on “Interdisciplinary problem solving for grizzly bear conservation and management.” In recent years, bear conservation efforts in this region have been hindered by acrimonious disputes about the production and use of scientific knowledge in management. The workshops introduced the policy sciences as a means of thinking more effectively about problems, and encouraged participants to use this approach to develop innovative solutions to the problems of grizzly bear conservation. Each workshop addressed different aspects of the policy sciences framework: (i) Standpoint Clarification; (ii) Problem Orientation; (iii) Social Process Mapping; and (iv) Decision-Process Mapping. In this article, we discuss the design and outcomes of the workshops and assess their effectiveness in integrating knowledge to find common ground.